Family walking Lucky the dog on Mother's Day finds $25K gold nugget

AUSTRALIA -- Not a bad Mother's Day morning: A family out for a stroll in Australia found a 20-ounce gold nugget estimated to be worth more than $24,000.

"I actually walked right past it, but my daughter pretty much kicked it as she was walking," the father, who is staying anonymous, told the Bendigo Advertiser. "She then goes, 'Dad, is this gold?'" It was.

Also of note: The family dog on the stroll was named Lucky. They didn't know how to weigh it, so they took it to the local supermarket -- and the Mother's Day stroll actually featured just Dad, their two daughters, and Lucky. Mom stayed home.

The New Zealand Herald noted finding gold nuggets isn't unheard of in Australia, with a prospector finding one worth $76,000 in a remote region last September, but anyone hoping to duplicate the family's find in Bendigo has much searching to do.

The spot is identified only as being on the "outskirts of town," and the anonymous family plans to go back themselves for a more thorough search. They also plan to sell the nugget.

(In Pennsylvania, the legend of a Civil War stash of gold endures.)

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